Hey guys! It was so awesome to read your emails! Whoever is playing Jake in Ping Pong, please beat him for me! He needs to stop being so lucky! ;)
The best thing of this week is that Elder Tibolla (the old man who is in charge of the vehicles for the mission) gave me the privilege to drive. Elder Zarse and I called him up and told him that I need to learn the area because Zarse is going to get transferred soon. The best way for me to learn the area is by driving. Elder Tibolla accepted and gave me permission! Being able to drive our car (2012 Chevy Malibu) is awesome! Everything runs so smooth and it's very tempting to go fast on that vehicle on the long, straight roads between farms. It's so hard not to do that!
Day 1: I had my first exchange on this day. An exchange is where two companionship pretty much switch companions for a day. I got to be with Elder Smith who is from TEMPE, ARIZONA! How CRAZY is that?! We were talking so much about Arizona and how awesome it is. He is a big fan of guns and computers so we talked mostly about computers. It turns out that he knows more about guns than computers so he gets confused when I start talking about computer parts and how it's revolutionizing the computer world. I also got very confused when he gets deep with guns, specifically names for guns.
Anyways, we got to go teach this 8 years old kid who has very active parents (they were converts) and he hates church! He kept telling us how we spend too much time in church. We taught him about CPR and when we did the object lesson for that, he was freaking out how we did it. He kept trying to figure out how we did it. He pretty much stopped listening to us and started focusing on how to make the object lesson work. We had to stop and teach him how to do it. It was quite funny! After meeting with this kid, we got to go to one of the WML for Elder Smith and he is a STUD! He is so awesome. We got to go to his house and chill so we can get to know him better so he can better serve Smith. After that, we went back to Elder Smith's house and spent the rest of the night talking about the end of the world stuff from the Bible. It was VERY INTERESTING! I love talking about that kind of stuff.
Day 2 - We got to teach Jessica on this day and when she opened the door, she was putting makeup on. It's like looking at a grown man wearing makeup. To be honest, I was gawking at her face because it was so strange seeing that. Zarse had to elbow me in the ribs to get me back to reality. It was a good thing that she didn't notice that, it would've been embarrassing! We taught her more about the Atonement and she is FINALLY understanding. We shared a couple personal stories and left!
One of the Garland Elders told us that there is a family who gives out free cereals out to missionaries. Zarse and I really wanted something quick and easy to make for breakfast so we headed out to the address and holy crap, the family is SUPER nice. The mother's father served a mission with Thomas S. Monson as his mission president. It was CRAZY hearing their awesome missionary experiences. They also gave us so much cereal. You'll see how many we have in the pictures below! Apparently, their daughter works for a cereal factory or something like that and she gets bring home 3 bags of cereal after each shift. They have a closet stuffed with cereal and we get to take as much as we wanted. We took so much that it was a huge hassle to bring it all into the car in one trip but WE DID IT! haha!
I had a really scary experience the following night. We were doing some contacting and we were out in this house that was a referral by someone in the stake. It was in a middle of NOWHERE! I told my companion that when we get a chance to go to the bathroom, I need to go! The door opened and there was this old man who looked like a regular man! He said, "not interested" and was in the process of closing the door when Zarse interrupted him and told him that I needed to go the bathroom. He immediately looked down and said, "ok but YOU have to stay outside. Only he can come inside to use it." I was about to say no when my companion agreed. I immediately had this bad feeling that something bad is going to happen. I went in and as I was walking towards the bathroom, I see this old scary woman staring at me like she was watching my every single move. It was REALLY creepy! After I used the bathroom and I went out, I see this man that opened the door and woman that was staring at me outside of the bathroom with their arms folded. It was scary! The guy said, "Are you done?" I replied with showing gratitude and asked, "Is there a time when we can come back and teach you about the gospel and how it can benefit you and your family?" The old man rejected straight off the bat. I was taken back by how fast he responded. I was stunned. After a few moments, the old man said, "Are you here as a missionary or as a civilian that needs to use the restroom?" I replied, "Both." He responded with why and I told him my missionary purpose. His face got so pissed and by the way his face was looking at me, I honestly thought he was going to kill me. I ran out of the house and into the car, I literally sped off! Zarse was so bewildered by how I reacted. It was a funny experience now but I was so scared! haha!
Day 3 - Zarse woke up morning extremely sick and I was worried how we were going to be able to go to our appointments. He asked for a blessing and I gave him one. I was super nervous and shaking but I just said what came into my mind. He said that he felt so much better after the blessing and he also remarked how incredible the blessing was. It made me so happy! The Priesthood was truly restored through the prophet Joseph Smith!
Most of our appointments fell through (again...) that day and we decided to go contacting. We were in this area and these two really cute girls came up to us and started talking to us. They also remarked that there was these three guys and one of them is preparing to go on a mission. After thanking the girls, we went up to them and started talking. We talked about home and how awesome it is to be a missionary. It turns out that they're from the Fieldings Stake which is an area that we do not cover. We helped their aunt move and after that, they fed us dominoes. After sharing a spiritual message, they said thanks and gave us a whole box of pizza as a thank you! The people here give us TOO much food. I swear I'm getting fat now!
Day 4 - This was a pretty slow day because we were spending some time doing contacting that was not working :(. We got to see Kevin and he wanted to have dinner with us. We accepted and he made ribs and pistachio pudding. It was incredible! I ate so many ribs and pudding. I really need to start paying attention on how much I eat now. We shared a spiritual message and left. Zarse told me after we left that we have a dinner appointment to get to. WHAT?! TWO DINNERS IN ONE DAY! What the?! We had enchiladas and I had one portion of it. I ate it all pretty fast and the mother was like, "You need to eat more, Elder. You are looking pretty hungry!" Uh, no. I'm super stuffed! She put more food on my plate and smiled at me. I ate it all again and to be honest, I almost threw up right there because I had so much food. I can now see how the mission weight gain average for Elders is 40 pounds and for sisters, it's 50 pounds.
Day 5 - We went to 3 ward councils which were pretty much a waste of time. All they talked about is how the ward can better greet the people that we bring into church. After the last ward council of the day, we had a guy that gave us a lot of referrals! WOOT! He was a stud!
Zarse and I got to give more talks! Yay! It was so much fun being able to inspire people to do missionary work! We had a lot of people that told us that we did a pretty good job and one of them even told me that Zarse and I are SPIRITUAL GIANTS! It felt really good hearing that!
We got to see a guy named Paul Panasulk and it turned out that he made dinner for us. It was so much food but it was delicious. I stuffed myself.. again... I need to stop eating so much! After eating, we got to talk to him about eternal families and how it is possible to live with our families forever. He liked it a lot!
After we left Paul's house, I asked Zarse if we have a dinner appointment and guess what he said.. YES! What.. 2 dinners again! Tremonton is such a good town and the people are feeding us a lot of food! This family did the same thing with putting food on our plates. They put way too much food and it was hard for Zarse and I to eat it all because we were so stuffed. I weighed myself last night and I gained 5 pounds because of the two dinners! Haha!
Day 6 - It was a fantastic day! We were super busy! Today, we had 2 cancellations for appointments but we set up so many more appointments for the next week! Everything is going to get MORE busy now, I'm so happy! The work is truly hastening! Kramer is going to get baptized on this Saturday! My first baptism! Yay! We had a little refresher course with him last night to prepare him for the baptismal interview last night! He is so ready! It is an exciting time for him!
We had a dinner appointment with one of the WML and he brought in a less active. We ate dinner and taught her about CPR. The WML and his wife as well as the less active were ASTOUNDED by how we did the object lesson for CPR. Their eyes pretty much popped out! The WML's wife kept saying how awesome it was! It was nice being able to do that!
I have a baptism set for the 21st (Kramer Newlon) and another one set for the 28th (Mika Glover) It is an exciting month for Zarse and I. Please check out eldermcgrath.blogspot.com. I post spiritual thoughts up on that blog. Let me know if you like it!Everything is going FANTASTIC here in Tremonton. It is absolutely beautiful and I LOVE being a missionary! It is the best thing in the whole world! I love you guys and have a great week. Stay strong! The Lord will watch over you and protect you in times of need!
Viel Gluck ("Good luck" in German, Zarse has been teaching me German!) Love, Elder McGrath
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